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Front Row: Sadiq Khan, Jake Arnott, The Tale of Januarie opera

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24/02/2017

Sadiq Khan, Jake Arnott, The Tale of Januarie opera

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Sadiq Khan, Jake Arnott, The Tale of Januarie opera

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Jake Arnott on The Fatal Tree, The Tale of Januarie opera.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan on screening The Salesman in Trafalgar Square; Jake Arnott on novel The Fatal Tree; The Tale of Januarie opera based on Chaucer's The Merchant's Tale.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, looks ahead to Sunday when he's transforming Trafalgar Square into 'London's biggest cinema' for a free public screening of Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's Oscar-nominated film The Salesman, just hours before this year's Academy Awards are announced. 

Jake Arnott discusses his latest novel The Fatal Tree set in Georgian London's criminal underworld. It follows the fortunes of notorious prostitute and pickpocket Edgworth Bess and her husband Jack Sheppard, a thief whose escapades inspired the character of Macheath in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera.

Next week the Guildhall School will put on the world premiere of Julian Philips' opera The Tale of Januarie. Based on Chaucer's The Merchant's Tale, it's the first opera to have been written in Middle English. The librettist Stephen Plaice and composer Julian Philips join John to discuss how they approached it.

Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Edwina Pitman.

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